Climate change caused record heat in the northern hemisphere – 09/07/2023 – Environment

A study revealed this Thursday (7) that the record temperatures that affected billions of people in the northern hemisphere this summer were largely due to man-made climate change.

The new study, carried out by the non-profit organization Climate Central, examines the period from June to August 2023, and concludes that greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial era have made heat waves much more likely. that punished Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.

About half of the world’s population — more than 3.8 billion people — was exposed to 30 days or more of extreme heat made worse by climate change, while at least 1.5 billion people endured these temperatures daily during the three months.

“Virtually no one on Earth has escaped the influence of global warming over the past three months,” said Andrew Pershing, vice president of science at Climate Central.

“In all the countries we were able to analyze, including in the southern hemisphere, where this is the coldest time of the year, we saw temperatures that would be difficult — and, in some cases, almost impossible — without man-made climate change. carbon is clearly responsible for this season’s record heat,” he added.

The analysis was based on methods developed by experts to determine the probability of daily temperatures occurring in each country in the world with and without current carbon levels.

A similar approach has allowed scientists to identify the climate influence or “fingerprint” of extreme weather phenomena, including, most recently, the fire-prone conditions that sparked this year’s wildfires in Quebec, Canada.

Climate Central has developed a Climate Change Index (CSI), which ranges from -5 to 5, with positive levels indicating increasingly likely temperatures due to climate change.

A CSI of level 0 means that climate change has had no detectable influence, while level 3 indicates that it has tripled the odds of recording a specific temperature at a specific time and place.

According to the team’s calculations, 48% of the planet experienced 30 days between June and August with CSI level 3 or higher, while 1.5 billion people were subjected to this heat throughout the summer.

“There really is this divide between the countries that have been most responsible for climate change through the emissions that are driving the heat that we’re experiencing right now,” Pershing said.

The least developed countries or small island states are suffering three to four times more climate-intensified heat than the G20 countries, the world’s largest economies.

Global exposure to high temperatures peaked on August 16, 2023, when 4.2 billion people around the world experienced extreme heat.

Due to the temperatures already reached in these eight months of the year, the European observatory Copernicus stated this Wednesday (6) that 2023 will probably be the hottest year on record. So far, the planet’s average temperature is just 0.01°C behind 2016, the previous record.